Soundtrack- Music within these films

Like many hollywood directors Chris Columbus is able to use orchestral music within the two films of 'Home Alone' and 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone', in a way to build suspense where there is the situation of the burglers attempting to enter the house in 'Home Alone' and then Harry's encounter with Lord Voldermort in 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'. These situations are tense, due to the audiene not knowing what will happen between the overall idea of good vs evil and the music that is used is able to add suspense to these scenes. This is due to the build up of the music and the airy feel in sections of the pieces of music between each individul score in the seperate films.

• Columbus uses John Williams as the composer for both films of 'Home Alone' and 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone',
• The main trait used by Williams to convey the idea of a tense environment by the build up of music.While listening to each indivdual piece of music in both films the music builds up by getting louder and more instruments are introduced, indicating to the audience that the 'baddy' is near and that the audience can expect confrontation between the good and the bad. For example Harry meeting Voldermort and Kevin in 'Home Alone' attempting to avoid the burglars with booby traps.

Home Alone- 'Follow that Kid'- Composed by John Williams.
Harry Potter- 'The Face of Voldermort'- Composed by John Williams

• Effect of music- By using this type of music for the certain scenes of both Harry and Kevin facing their enemies we are able to understand how the character is feeling. The feeling being uncomfortable and scared but yet at the same time there is the idea of bravery presented in both individual pieces of music.
• Audiences reaction to music- Not only do us as an audience understand how the character is feeling in the situation but also it makes us feel uncomfortable. It gives us an uneased feeling where we are wondering what the outcome will be of the siutation that is about to take place- whether it will be positive or negative for the main characters of Kevin or Harry.The heavy music indicates to us that an 'evil' type of presence is near or surrounds the scene therefore we are to expect some conflict to occur.We understand how the character feels (scared) with the sudden chanage in the music which gives us a fright

Music used to portray theme:

• Not only does Chris Columbus use music to build suspense and add tension towards certain scenes, but he also is selective of the music used to create the overall theme of the film.
• Music is able to portray the plot of the films.
• Both the main theme song of 'Harry Potter' and 'Home Alone' have a similarity between them, where there is the repetition of the same melody in both individual scores and also similiar instruments in both

• Both the scores allow for the audience to know the setting of each individual film. For example if we listen to 'Somewhere in My Memory' we are able to sense that there is the idea of Christmas surrounding the film of 'Home Alone' with the subtleness of the bells in the background of the music in parts and also a warm feeling within parts of the music that gives the sense of family. Due to Kevin being left at home by himself, the music is also able to give the impression that he is missing his family with the choir singing.
• Also the music presents a type of sneakiness which represents the burglars trying to enter the house.

• 'Hedwigs Theme' however indicates to the audience that there is a fantasy theme behind the film with the start of a chime sound and then gradually builds to include more instruments and almost reflects the world of Harry Potter. Like Harry's life in the film where he goes from thinking that he is an ordinary "muggle" (non-magic people) to finding out that he is a famous wizard and actually has a more complex life, like the music introducing more instruments. The score becomes more complex and heavier compared to the start and portrays the story-line of how Harry meets his enemy for the first time.

Home Alone- Somewhere in My Memory-Composed by John Williams
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone- 'Hedwig's Theme'- Composed by John Williams


Bu using these pieces of music as the overall theme for each movie, Columbus allows us to get a sense of the type of feel each film has and gives us a subtle feel as to what events may occur in the film.


Source of information:
Link: About John Williams inspiration of composing the Harry Potter themes, and also how some scores have a similiar sound to the scores used in Home Alone.
http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/harry_potter.html#audio